Rangers 1-0 Dundee: Player ratings as Cerny fires the Gers into second place

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90min

·21 December 2024

Rangers 1-0 Dundee: Player ratings as Cerny fires the Gers into second place

Rangers returned to winning ways with a largely comfortable 1-0 victory over Dundee on Saturday afternoon.

After a demoralising and controversial penalty shootout defeat to arch-rivals Celtic in last weekend's League Cup final, Rangers had to turn their attention back to the grind of top-flight football.

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Philippe Clement revealed that the Hamdpen defeat had "hurt really a lot for everybody in the club", and the sense of deflation seeped through an underwhelming opening 45 minutes. The Gers piled up a double-digit haul of shots and had more than 80% possession but only forced Dundee's veteran goalkeeper Trevor Carson into two straightforward saves.

Whatever Clement said at half-time quickly paid off. Vaclav Cerny, the forward at the epicentre of a non-penalty decision which sparked a stand-off between Rangers and the Scottish FA, legally fired the visitors in front within a minute of the restart.

Streaking clear of Dundee's muddled backline, the Czech forward rounded Carson and snuck the ball between a rapidly narrowing angle.

Rangers didn't add to Cerny's opener, despite carving open promising openings for James Tavernier and two golden chances for Hamza Igamane. Nevertheless, victory moved the Gers back into second place, leapfrogging an Aberdeen side quickly running out of steam after a blistering start to the campaign.

Clement insisted pre-game that "things are going in the right direction". Three more Premiership points bolstered the manager's argument, but the eight-point chasm up to league-leading Celtic underscores how far Rangers have to go.